Wood is not only universal and popular building material. In everyday life, wooden objects are used everywhere and constantly, especially since wood is a very easy material to process. Making a wooden handle for a knife with your own hands is not at all as difficult a task as it seems at first glance.
Types of handles
A wooden handle for a folding or regular kitchen model should first of all be comfortable. Actually, this is the attractiveness of making it yourself: you can make a handle of any configuration, any size suitable for your hand, and impregnate it with any composition.
At self-production 2 types of wooden handles are most often used:
- mounted - a cavity is formed at the end of the product into which a blade with a narrow shank is fixed. The handle is a single unit and is very resistant to damage. A folding knife cannot be made this way;
- overhead – suitable for blades with a wide shank. In this case, the handle consists of two parts that overlap the blade. The handle is heavier, which helps balance the wide blade. For kitchen knife, for example, this is important. The folding model always refers to the invoice type. The photo shows a set for the folding version.
Materials and tools
To make a kitchen knife with a wooden handle, you need to select the right wood, process it, impregnate it, cut the parts in and secure it using the chosen method. For this you will need such materials.
- Wood - as a rule, choose wood with an original texture and pattern so that the product is attractive, like in the picture. In this case, preference is given to hard and durable species - oak, walnut, maple. It is more difficult to cut a handle from such wood, but the result will last a long time. In any case, the wood must be selected dry - no more than 12-15% humidity, and must be treated with antiseptics.
- The blade itself is purchased ready-made. For manufacturing, you need to know exactly the dimensions of the shank and the weight of the blade.
- Fasteners - for kitchen knives with a mounted handle, epoxy resin is used. To attach the attachment handle, you needed a brass or copper rod of the required diameter.
- Impregnation – the product must be impregnated with a suitable composition. Most often, linseed oil or special dish varnish is used. It is necessary to impregnate the handle not only to give it a beautiful shine: the composition protects the wood from moisture. How to impregnate a wooden knife handle depends on the type of product.
- Tools - as a rule, the set is quite ordinary: cutters, plane, hacksaw. However, to speed up the process, you can also resort to electric models.
How to make a handle
To make a handle, you need some experience working with wood.
At the same time, this work is quite suitable for practice for a beginner.
- The wood must be impregnated with an antiseptic before work.
- Use a hacksaw or jigsaw to cut out a piece of wood suitable shape. If this is your first try, it is better to do without finger grooves, but if you already have experience, you can choose the most optimal configuration. At the first stage, the workpiece has only an approximate shape, then its shape is brought to perfection using a cutter and a hacksaw. How to process a wooden knife handle depends on the skill and desire of the craftsman.
- The finished workpiece is processed with sandpaper until perfectly smooth.
- A groove for the blade is drilled at the end of the product. The depth depends on the weight of the blade. The shank should fit easily onto the handle. The photo shows the formation of the groove.
- Then the product is treated, for example, with linseed oil. Pour oil into a small saucepan and place on water bath, and the workpiece is immersed in the impregnation and held until air bubbles stop appearing.
- The wooden handle is left to dry.
- Prepare epoxy resin according to the instructions. Mix it with sawdust, and fill the cavity of the handle with resin.
- A blade is inserted into the cavity, ensuring the correct position, and left to dry for a day. In order not to stain the product, but epoxy resin It is wiped off with great difficulty, the blade is wrapped with tape, as in the picture.
The attachment model for a folding knife is made slightly differently. Here the tool kit will include rivets and a vice.
- The rough-shaped workpiece is held in a vice and cut into 2 parts. Both parts are then finished to perfection using cutters and sandpaper.
- The product is assembled: the blade is placed between the handle parts. Mark the attachment points and drill holes through the workpiece. In this way, perfect alignment of the holes is achieved.
- Then a rivet is made from a rod with a diameter that matches the diameter of the hole.
- The blanks are treated with oil according to the technology described above.
- Epoxy resin is applied to inner side parts, shank and rivets. Assemble the product and wrap it tightly with tape.
- In a day the handle should be ready. If necessary, it is cleaned of excess epoxy resin.
In the video, making a handle with your own hands is covered in more detail.
Any knife consists of two elements: a blade and a handle. The quality of a knife and its ease of use depend on the material used to make the blade, its heat treatment and sharpening. The shape of the knife handle affects the functionality of the tool and its maneuverability. Sketches and drawings of handles for wooden knives are publicly available on the Internet, but the mounting options are not very diverse.
Mounting method
Methods for attaching the handle to the blade:
- mounted;
- riveted.
With the mounted method of forming a knife handle, an array of solid material or a set of plates is mounted on the tail of the blade. If the handle consists of a set sheet material, it's called typesetting. In some designs, the tail part of the blade is threaded for additional fixation of the plates with a nut.
To prevent the handle from splitting during operation, the material is fixed with clips on both sides. The stacked handle is always parallel to the blade. The mounting method of making a handle has its advantages:
- the ability to give any shape affects aesthetic qualities;
- low weight and low thermal conductivity;
- maintainability.
The main disadvantage of this design is the low strength of the connection between the handle and the blade.
Overhead riveted version
When making a riveted version of the handle, linings are used, located on the wide shank of the knife, which follows the shape of the handle. The plates are attached to the shank using rivets or screws. The latter are used quite rarely for these purposes.
Copper or steel rivets are widely used for fixing linings. Knives in this design can be found in any kitchen. Many people wonder how to make a knife handle at home. Advantages of the overhead fastening option: ease of manufacture and ease of fastening.
Among the disadvantages are:
- limited form;
- heavy weight;
- high thermal conductivity coefficient.
Handle shapes
There are five main shapes of knife handles:
Types and benefits of wood
The choice of material for the future handle should be approached very responsibly. The following characteristics depend on the raw materials: strength, ergonomics, balance and resistance to contamination. A knife with a wooden handle is perfect for a novice hunter.
Wood has become widespread as the main material for making handles. Typically, varieties with a dense structure are used: oak, ash, walnut, maple, apple, cherry. Exotic breeds wood have more beautiful view , but can be difficult to process or have a bad effect on the balance of the knife. A homemade carved knife will always decorate the collection of any hunter. Among the domestic types of wood suitable for making handles are Karelian birch, beech, hornbeam and walnut. Exotic ones include ebony, wenge, omboyna and bubinga.
Karelian birch is used in many countries of the world along with rare exotic specimens. The structure of its wood resembles marble. The hardness of this type can reach up to 3.5 units on the Brinell hardness scale, density - up to 770 kg/m3. Inside, the material has unique thickenings - burls, which give Karelian birch a marble texture. Color varies from light golden to dark amber. Such wood is difficult to process, so special skills are required when making the handle.
Hornbeam is a type of deciduous tree belonging to the Birch family. Wood has the greatest hardness (about 3.7 Brinell units) and a density of about 800 kg/m3. Experts highly value the wear resistance of this wood, which is why it is used in critical components that are subject to increased demands on toughness and impact strength.
Walnut is often used to make propellers for light aircraft. The minimal tendency to cracking determines the use of wood for the manufacture of handles. When dried, such a handle retains its shape and is not subject to rotting. According to Brinell hardness is about 3.7 units.
To make a black handle, ebony or ebony is used. It grows in tropical jungles and has a density of 1300 kg/m3, so the wood of this tree sinks in water. The oily structure makes the material resistant to atmospheric influences.
The stability of the structure allows the use of ebony for low temperatures in the conditions of the Far North. This material also serves as a raw material for the manufacture musical instruments, souvenirs, figurines and figurines.
Wenge wood is a rare species of equatorial wood. Chocolate color The material with veins gives the texture of the finished product an unforgettable look. Wenge is superior in hardness to oak and ash. On the Brinell scale, hardness can reach up to 4.2 units. Density is 890 kg/m3. The presence of oily deposits in the wood structure complicates mechanical processing and sanding. Waxing is recommended as a final finishing touch.
The wood of the amboyna tree is red-brown in color. The density of the material is quite low - about 670 kg/m3. Easily tolerates mechanical processing and polishing. At the final stage of manufacturing, additional filling of the pores with viscous compounds may be required.
The wood of the bubinga tree has distinct growth rings, which makes its structure bright and attractive. It has an average density of about 900 kg/m3. Applicable in decorative purposes, since it is easily exposed machining. By polishing you can achieve a mirror finish. High adhesiveness makes it suitable for making musical instruments, decorative panels and for decoration internal space cars.
Other materials
Making a set handle for a knife with your own hands is quite simple. Leather is used quite often. The use of this material has become widespread thanks to positive qualities starting raw materials.
A well-made handle has a good appearance, low thermal conductivity. The knife leg is threaded, so it is not afraid of impacts and is better able to withstand falls. The goatskin handle is especially prized among hobbyists.
Plastic or plexiglass are also often used. Among the main advantages are high impact resistance, low weight, resistance to water and moisture, frost resistance and dielectric properties. A blade made of plastic will be cold to the touch.
It is necessary to take into account that there is static balancing and dynamic balancing. It is quite difficult to choose the optimal one. If static balancing characterizes the weight qualities of a weapon, then dynamic balancing takes into account the moment of inertia. Optimal for household use The option is considered when the center of mass is at the level of the index finger.
To answer the question: “How to make a handle for a knife?” - you need to know what it is for. Because the material often determines the functionality of the blade. This article is intended to help with the choice of material and will give several useful tips how to make a handle for a knife.
The handle can be made of wood, metal, leather, birch bark, various plastics, or woven from wire or nylon cord. As you can see, the choice is very large and if a knife is not made to decorate a collection, you need to approach its equipment very responsibly.
Does the material have great value? Huge. For example, a knife with a metal handle is unlikely to be suitable for a tourist. It is too heavy for hiking, and in the cold it will simply be impossible to pick it up. But knives with a handle made of leather or birch bark will not last long for a hunter, since after the first skinning of game blood will get on such a handle, and after a few days the smell will be such that you will not want to pick up the knife. What can we say about throwing knives, where any handle can simply fly into pieces.
Similar to the material, the shape of the handle is also chosen according to how the knife will be used. If this universal tool tourist or hunter, then the shape should be simple, without grooves for fingers and similar frills. So that the knife can be held in different grips, and it is equally convenient for them to peel potatoes, open a tin can, plan wood or repair equipment. If they are going to use a knife to break through doors, then, of course, the more additional ledges on the handle for a secure hold, the better.
Now let's look at the most popular techniques for making a knife handle.
Knife handle no less important element than the blade itself, since the convenience and safety of use depends on how the knife lies in the hand. The handle also has decorative functions, especially if the knife is a souvenir. Among some northern peoples, the hilt is valued even more than the blade itself. It is made of soft steel that can be sharpened on any stone. And when the blade is ground down, the blade part is thrown away, and a new blade is inserted into the familiar and comfortable handle. Let's look at some of the materials used in the manufacture of knife handles.
The simplest handle can be formed by wrapping a cord around the tail of the knife. This type of handle can often be seen on throwing or tactical knives.
Many knife makers use traditional materials such as wood, horn or bone to make handles. Wood is used both in mass production and in the manufacture of one-piece items by knifemakers. IN different regions They use different types of wood that are most accessible, work well, or have a beautiful texture.
For example, walnut, maple, oak, apple, pear, ash, and cherry are used to make handles. Although, at present, blanks are available from various exotic varieties of wood that grow in tropical countries. True, many rare wood species are more difficult to process because they have high hardness.
Designer knives with wooden handles are often decorated with carvings or inlaid with various inserts. Brass, silver or gold wire is used for notching. It is rolled out into strips and then driven into grooves, which are made in the form of an ornament, so soft, dense wood, such as walnut, is suitable for these purposes. Dense wood is well suited for carving - maple, dogwood, apple tree, boxwood, juniper, pear. Among tropical species, lemon, red or rosewood are used for these purposes.
IN middle lane In Russia, birch bark is often used for handles. They make it out of it stacked handles, that is, birch bark plates are placed on the shank of a knife, compressed and processed. Sometimes, on the contrary, they first prepare blanks from compressed birch bark, then fix them on the shank and process them.
After processing the birch bark, the handle gets a beautiful and slightly corrugated surface. One of the advantages of a birch bark handle is that it turns out completely natural, since it is made without the use of impregnations or varnishes. The birch bark handle does not slip, even if it is wet or stained with scales or blood. It is warm and pleasant to the touch.
From natural materials, wild animal horns are also used to make handles. Basically, the horn is used in hunting knives, or souvenir options. Red deer antler makes the most beautiful handles. The material is quite durable and can be processed well. Elk horn is also well processed, but it is heavier and acquires gray after polishing. The antler of American white-tailed deer and reindeer is used less frequently due to its more porous structure.
In knife catalogs you can often see Nepalese kukri knives. Some knives have buffalo horn handles.
Synthetic materials are widely used in the manufacture of knives. Previously, plexiglass, plastic, and textolite were often used. Modern synthetic materials There are quite a lot of materials used in knife making, for example Fiberglass, G-10, Delrin, Grivory, Zytel, Kraton, Carbon, Micarta, Lexan, Nylon, Elastron and some others.
In descriptions of the characteristics of imported knives, you can often see Zytel material. This material is made on the basis of nylon, but is more rigid and has better wear resistance. These material qualities depend on the type and quantity of resins added. The material is difficult to scratch and has high impact strength and heat resistance. Typically, Zytel handles are knurled for better grip on the palm.
Another material from which the handles are made is Grivory. This is a modern fiberglass, very resistant to thermal and ultraviolet influences. Grivory material is more technologically advanced and even stronger than Zytel.
Currently, micarta is widely used in the manufacture of knives. It is moisture resistant, durable and has a good appearance. The material is well processed. Micarta is a material consisting of a mixture of resins that is used to glue together various electrical insulating materials. Various types of paper and fabric are used as layers for gluing. The texture and color of the material depends on the structure and color of the components, as well as the resins used to glue the filler. Therefore, by changing the color of the components, a very interesting texture and color compositions micarta. Sometimes micarta imitates some natural materials, for example a tree.
There are other synthetics that imitate natural materials, for example Elforin. It serves as a substitute for ivory. The material is well cut, processed and polished, and is also resistant to acids and oils, and even more so to ordinary moisture.
Another frequently used material is Kraton. It is also used as independent material for knife handles, and as an insert into a handle made of another material. Kraton is a synthetic rubber substitute, that is, Andh oprene rubber. The material is more wear-resistant than rubber. The kraton handle does not slip in the hand, and the surface of the handle is usually grooved, so it sits firmly in the palm.
G-10 is also a popular material for knife handles. . This is fiberglass, which is made on the basis of fiberglass and epoxy binders. G-10 is a non-flammable, moisture-resistant material with dielectric properties. As a result of the addition of dyes, it is possible to obtain products different colors. Among the disadvantages of the G-10 material, one can note the deterioration of strength characteristics at low temperatures.
Many manufacturers, especially Russian ones, make knives with elastron handles. Elastron G rubber plastic has the strength of vulcanized rubber, and it remains flexible over a wide temperature range - from minus 65°C to +150°C.
On the edged weapons market there are many various types knives, but there are still people who want to make their own knife at home. And rightly so, because it will be exclusively their product, original and unlike others.
This article will help a beginner understand the business of making knives in the absence of special conditions and will tell you how to choose the right materials for making knives and in general outline will tell you what to do with them, so don’t judge too harshly :)
To make a knife at home from start to finish you will need:
- blade or material for its manufacture;
— materials for the handle;
- additional parts for making a pommel, guard, bolster - or ready-made ones from the store;
- fasteners (depending on the manufacturing strategy - epoxy, screws, etc.)
Blade for making a knife
First, let's consider the question of what to do with the blade. Firstly, making it yourself at home will be extremely problematic - if you do not have the opportunity to forge the blade yourself, so the best solution will buy a ready-made, for example, Lauri 125 blade made of carbon steel.
Where to buy a blade for making a knife?
There are quite a few sources selling blades prepared for home-made knife making: you can buy them from private craftsmen at guns.ru or at bladed weapons exhibitions, or buy blades in other online stores; Or you can order an industrial blade from the manufacturer, including on Chinese auction sites such as ebay or aliexpress.
There are very high-quality and inexpensive catalogs of blades from Finnish (and Scandinavian in general) manufacturers, I can recommend them.
If you really have difficulty finding a suitable blade, just take a sheet of metal, for example, a sawn-off piece of a spring, give it a shape and work with it.
Of course, the purchased blade should be modified. To do this, you need to take a file or even a circle and rough water stones (if your product is very “raw” and you still need to remove the slopes) and sharpen the blade to the desired type and shape, and then use sandpaper to smooth out any irregularities.
The easiest way to check the quality of a product is this: wipe the finished blade and breathe on it. Perspiration will come off from a high-quality blade without any unevenness, and it will lie there without breaks. In this case, it is better to carry out such an experiment several times and from different sides.
What steel to make a knife from - questions for other articles, you can read the materials on our website, for example the article.
DIY knife handle
Next, let's look at the future handle of your knife. It is best and easiest to take wood for it, since in the future the wooden handle of a self-made knife will look nice, and your hand will not freeze. Absolutely any type of tree is suitable - especially since you are just learning.
The simplest handle for a knife with your own hands is made from old legs of Soviet tables, chairs, sofas or armchairs, because previously furniture was made to perfection. Using a hacksaw, we cut off the piece to the required length, then roughly cut out the shape of the handle that we would like to see on the finished product. It is also necessary to make a recess in the handle for the shank of your blade - for example, drill it and process it with needle files. Whether this hole is through or not through depends on the finished design of the knife.
Ideally, you would also need to draw a rough drawing of a knife that is made at home. You already have a blade for this and the approximate dimensions and outlines of the handle. And using the drawn layout it will be easier to make a finished knife, finishing it after assembly with sandpaper.
If you already more or less know how to make a knife with your own hands, you can buy blocks of stabilized wood (you will get very beautiful and strong handles), or try to make a handle from birch bark or pressed leather; you can make a wicker handle - there are a lot of options. You will move to the next level of “knife building”, so to speak :)
Important details for making a knife at home
In addition to these two main parts of the knife, there are also additional elements:
The guard is a part specially designed to protect the hand of the knife owner. You can make it from metal or wood, or buy it ready-made in specialized stores. You can make a knife without a guard or a combat rest at all - such a knife is not a bladed weapon.
Bolster - serves both to decorate the knife and to relieve the handle from excessive load. You can make it from wood or metal - for example, make a bolster from a coin or a soldering iron tip.
The pommel of the handle is opposite to the blade and performs functions such as: changing the balance of the finished knife, an aesthetic function (for beauty). Also, the pommel often plays the role of a nut that is screwed onto the shank (if you have a through shank). The top of the knife handle is made from various materials– but it’s better to stick to a single style.
Knife assembly
Having examined all the details of the future knife, putting everything together, a little preparing and processing the constituent ingredients of this “recipe”, you can turn directly to the assembly of the knife itself. To do this you will need a few more simple things: sandpaper for finishing handles and polishing the finished product, two types of binary glue (epoxy and cold welding"), a hammer or mallet, paper tape (to seal - to protect the blade and other polished metal parts of the assembled knife from scratches when sanding the handle and giving the homemade knife its final shape).
First you need to dilute the epoxy and coat the leather gasket with it, which we then apply to the part of the blade that will be inside the wood - the tang. Next, the “cold welding” is cut and quickly placed at the bottom of the hole drilled in the handle under the tail of the blade, where it is, in fact, inserted.
Gently driving the blade inside with a hammer or mallet will give the knife its final look. It would be ideal to hold the assembled knife with a clamp for a while while the epoxy hardens. In the end, a knife made with your own hands at home will only need to be polished and decorated at your discretion.
As more simple option you can make an overhead handle - from two plates (wooden, for example), which are attached to the shank of the blade on the right and left. This type of handle is usually attached with screws, in addition to epoxy, but usually looks simpler.
When you have given the ideal shape to the handle and are sure that your homemade knife is assembled reliably, you can start making it :)
